MCU

Promising a departure from the previous Thor films, Thor: Ragnarok promises to be a “buddy cop” action movie with heart and humor. We’ve already seen the first trailer and thanks to Led Zepplin, was an incredibly awesome. You couldn’t help but scream out “Yes” along with Thor Odinson as he ran into The Hulk in his full-on “Planet Hulk” attire. The third Thor film is already off to a good start.

This being Comic-Con, and Thor: Ragnarok being on everyone’s radar, it makes perfect sense that the official trailer (the first one was a teaser trailer after all) today at Marvel’s Hall H panel. Boy did they not disappoint! (more…)

Being one of Marvel’s biggest and most popular characters over the years, Spider-Man has had plenty of exposure throughout mass media. In addition to the comics, we have seen Spider-Man in multiple cartoon shows since the 1960s, live action tv show in the 1970s, and multiple iterations in the movies. We first saw him in Sam Rami’sSpider-Man trilogy in the early 2000s. Then Sony opted to reboot the character for the Amazing Spider-Man films. Unfortunately, the reboot was not as well received as Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe proved to have a great formula that is now pretty much the standard for superhero movies.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been one of the most successful franchises in recent history. Starting with Iron Man way back in 2008, the MCU had continued to grow to help birth the current age of superhero films. Sure, we love the characters and their heroics, but the MCU films also have had a wide reach with their audience. That is mostly due to the fact that all MCU films have had the family-friendly PG-13 Rating. While the Netflix Marvel Television shows have toes the line with Luke Cage and Jessica Jones doing the nasty and the constant barrage of the N-word on Luke Cage, they are still relatively tame compared to anything Tarantino would ever put out. Marvel Studios has played it safe with their 15 films by having them all be PG-13.

Some eagle eyed fans thought they’d spotted Adam Warlock‘s famous cocoon in the Collector’s lair in Guardians of the Galaxy, and well, they were right. Director James Gunn later confirmed the cocoon to be Warlock’s. Gunn, however, had also said it wasn’t put there as a conscious decision to tease a future appearance – he just used it to dress the set and have it serve as one of those random easter eggs. While there were no initial plans to include Adam Warlock into the MCU, the character did eventually become part of Gunn’s plans.

It’s come out, that while scripting Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Warlock was a big part of the story. (more…)

Most big studio blockbuster movies nowadays have grand budgets anyways. After all, our demand for big action, big special effects, and famous faces are the reason many of us are quite content with shelling out our hard earned $15 to go see our favorite movies. The movie studios know they stand to make substantial returns on their investments, so they have no problem greenlighting movies for hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars if they know they can make a killing on the back end. In addition to ticket sales, there’s Blu-Ray releases, streaming rights, and corporate sponsorships (toys, happy meals, etc) that ensure they make lots and lots of money off their films. Superhero movies are no stranger to this concept as they are now the most profitable movies currently out. Currently, the mother of all superhero movie, Avengers: Infinity War and its Untitled Sequel are currently in productions, and they have one hell of o budget.

The film industry is dealing with a number of difficult topics at the moment and Marvel, in particular, is currently trying to make up for previous cultural failings in cinema. It has recently made an effort to address the issues of racism and sexism in the media with its hit shows like Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. After criticism that the Marvel Cinematic Universe had predominantly featured men as its leading characters, it looks as though the studio plans to respond to public demand for a Black Widow movie, after her positive reception in The Avengers.

Thankfully, it looks like Marvel can be relied on to make some big waves in terms of film equality in the years ahead. (more…)

Spider-Man: Homecoming is the first Spider-Man film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After being introduced in Captain America: Civil War,Spider-Man will be played by Tom Holland. It’s safe to say that Marvel Studios have got their casting for Peter Parker bang on the money but more often than not it is the villains that fall flat in the web-slinger’s movies. Back in early April, fans were given a ray of hope when it was rumored that Batman himself, Michael Keaton, was in talks to play the lead villain in Spider-Man: Homecoming. (You can find out what NB had to say about that here.) Alas, that was short lived and almost a month ago to the day, NerdBastards brought you the news that Michael Keaton was no longer in contention for the role after talks broke down. Well dry those tears, quit saying Beetlejuice three times and stop watching Birdman on repeat because there is good news after all!

Simon West, best known for directing Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and The Expendables 2, has been lined up to oversee forthcoming fantasy epic War Wolf. A 14th Century-set tale of derring do, castles and knights, it centres around the nightmarish ‘Loup de Guerre’, the ferocious War Wolf legend come to life in the middle of a war between English and French, stalking and killing soldiers from both sides. (more…)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is generating all kinds of hype, enjoyment and revenue on a consistent basis. Captain America: Civil War was an outstanding take on a popular story arc from Marvel’s Avengers. As well as being a brilliant stand alone movie, it created so much excitement for upcoming films like Spiderman: Homecomingand Black Panther. One of the most anticipated elements of the MCU is the Avengers: Infinity War films and some huge news has been broken today about Infinity War Part One & Two. It turns out we won’t be watching Infinity War Part One & Two at all… Well, kind of.

There is a serious issue with whitewashing in cinema at the minute. Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Dormer have been the actors whose roles have most recently been pushed into contention as they both take on roles originally written for Japanese characters. Even more recently, Marvel have found themselves accused of whitewashing in their upcoming movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch Doctor Strange. But it is not the protagonist that the issue is with, this time it is Tilda Swinton’s character The Ancient One that has been accused of being wrongly cast. The question here is, have Marvel made the right choice in their casting and is that choice justified? Earlier today Marvel released a statement regarding their stance on the issue of Tilda Swinton‘s role… (more…)

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